


More than technical difficulties

by Schattenschreiberin



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schattenschreiberin/pseuds/Schattenschreiberin
Summary: The Toppats successfully launch the rocket but just a few weeks later things go downhill again.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	More than technical difficulties

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for an ask blog on tumblr.  
> If you like it and want to know more you can find a link to the blog in the end-notes

There had been a few technical difficulties on the station in the past few days. Lights flickering, coms falling out, doors jamming. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed in less than ten minutes though.

But Sven was still worried about it.

They had spent a lot of time building the rocket and double checking everything before the launch. And now there were so many problems just a few weeks later? He didn’t like that at all.

Their mechanics were taking care of most of the problems. Failing coms were usually fixed by Burt. Hopefully they would soon find the root of the problem.

„Sven?”

He pressed the button on his desk without even looking away from his computer screen. „What is it, Burt?”

„Did you eat breakfast?”

Sven groaned in annoyance „You really called me just to ask that?”

„I take that as a ‘No‘ and that might just be good for you now…“, there was a short pause and Sven could faintly hear the voice of another person „Come down to the engine room“

He got a bad feeling „Don’t tell me the engine is acting up too”

„It is but that’s not the main problem…”

„What is it then?”

„You should see for yourself. Knock an SOS, we’ve locked the doors”

Now he had a really bad feeling about this. He grabbed his jacket and hurried down to the engine room

The door was locked, just like Burt said. The pale face of the toppat who opened it for him made him feel even more anxious. And the stench that was lingering in the room…

„What happened?”

„We- we have no idea”, he was stammering and seemed a bit weak in the knees when he led his boss to the back of the room „We got an alert that there was a problem with the engine and when we got here…”

He stopped and gestured for Sven to take the last steps without him. He obviously didn’t want to go near whatever was in that corner.

The first thing Sven saw was Burt looking at his tablet and tapping his foot on the metal floor. Another one of their mechanics was leaning against the wall and something was lying on the floor. There was not as much light as Sven would’ve liked to have plus it was covered with a tarp so he couldn’t tell what it was… he had a suspicion but he really didn’t want to be right.

„You found something here?”

Burt looked up from his tablet and nodded „Yeah. You’re not going to like it”

He could already tell that from the stench and the nervous look on the mechanics’ face. Now that he was standing next to Burt he could see what his second-in-command was looking at. It was the footage of one of the security cameras. „I dislike a lot of things…” he murmured before kneeling down to lift up the tarp.

It was a body.

„Herregud…” It wasn’t the first time that Sven saw a dead person, but the ones before were usually just shot. This was… a little bit more. He really was glad he hadn’t eaten anything yet.

„It’s Talinn”, Burt continued to tap his foot, making one of the few sounds besides the humming of the engine „About half an hour ago”

Sven let the tarp fall back down and looked up at him. His eyes were still on the security footage and he was biting his lip. He rarely saw Burt nervous… this really didn’t help his own anxiety about the situation.

„Who found him?”

„We did… came here to check on the engine after getting an alert”, the mechanic paused „Took us maybe five minutes to get here. Engine was fine when we came in… Then we heard a noise from back here and found him”

„What kind of noise?”

The other could only shrugged „Metallic. We think it might’ve been the vent cover moving”

Sven had to look around for a moment to find then vent. It was fairly high up, but not unreachable. And there was a trail of blood leading there.

“So… someone came in and fled through the vents?”

“They might’ve come in through the vents as well. The cameras didn’t catch anyone going in here since last night”, Burt sighed “But the cameras in this area fell out yesterday evening so who knows if someone hid here for this long”

Sven stood up again, not wanting to investigate the mess on the floor any further right now. “What about the camera in here?”

“This corner is a blind spot… Easy to see if you know where the camera is”

“It didn’t catch anything?” They definitely had to fix that then…

“A little bit. It’s not very helpful though…” The raven-haired toppat tapped a few times on his tablet before turning it around. The screen showed the empty engine room, illuminated by red emergency lighting. A few seconds later Talinn stepped into the picture and looked around, probably checking if he could help with the problem. He wandered around for about a minute before turning the corner, entering the blind spot. Not even a second later his torso fell back into the picture and hit the floor. He was quickly dragged back into the corner. The only thing that was seen from the culprit was a hand that snatched Talinns’ hat and everything looked as if nothing happened.

Burt fast forwarded the footage. The emergency lighting turned off and, true to their word, the mechanics showed up not even five minutes later. They paused and then went straight to the corner, only to stumble back into the picture. The younger one obviously freaking out loudly. The two talked for a moment, calming down slightly before one grabbed a tarp from a nearby toolbox and the other one turned to leave the room. Sven just guessed that he was about to go get someone. He was still barely in the cameras’ view when he stopped, turned again and led Burt to the corner.

“That’s… a lot happening in just a few minutes…”

“We took pictures of everything before calling you”

Yeah… That was the logical thing to do. This was definitely not the scene of an accident. Sven couldn’t imagine what could accidentally slice someones’ stomach and pull out their guts… It was a murder… and the only people on the station all belonged to the clan.

The murderer was another toppat.

“Call someone down from medbay, we need to get Talinn to the morgue”

“What should I tell them? “

Sven had no idea… “Nothing for now… I want all elites in the meeting room as soon as possible. You two”, he turned to the mechanics “Close off this room. No one is allowed in here as long as the engine is not making any problems. If it does, I want you to take care of it”

Both of them nodded “Yes, chief”

He sighed and looked down at the covered body “And no word about this to anyone yet. We’ll tell them after the meeting...”

Carol Cross and Mr. Macbeth were the first elites to arrive in the meeting room. And Carol refused to wait for the others. She wanted to know then and there what caused the swede to pace around nervously.

She got very quiet after Burt handed her his tablet with the pictures of the crime scene pulled up.

Sven stopped his pacing and sat down at the head of the table once everyone was seated and the door was closed. “I’m sure by now most of you have seen the photos” Burts’ tablet was still going around the table. “Talinn Circus was killed in the engine room” There was an uncomfortable silence, only interrupted by a silent gasp when the tablet reached the last person. “We don’t have any prisoners on the station… Everyone here is a part of the clan”

“So we’ve got a traitor on board… “ Macbeth said grimly.

Sven nodded before continuing “The culprit was not caught on camera and fled through the vents. It’s also possible that they came in through that way.”

“So we have no clues who it could be?” Gene furrowed his eyebrows.

The leader shook his head “All we can do is see who wasn’t in the engine room at the time. If someone was caught by a camera somewhere else they’re cleared”

“That should be a short list then”, Carol was somewhat optimistic “We’ve got cameras in almost every room and corridor”

“We do… but a lot of them weren’t functioning properly or at all” Burt turned around the laptop he had been working on. The footage on the screen was fuzzy and glitching out. There were definitely people but it was very hard to see and identify their faces.

“Cameras falling out conveniently at the same time”, Ahnoldt scoffed “Doesn’t sound like a coincidence to me”

“Most likely not” That was the other thing that made Sven nervous. There was an alert for the engine but when the mechanics got there everything was fine. The emergency lighting had turned off shortly after Talinn had died…

“I always thought sabotaging our systems was impossible” Albert seemed honestly concerned. What else had they been wrong about?

“It’s almost impossible to sabotage them from _outside_ the station”, Burt corrected the older Toppat “This is someone sabotaging from the inside, with granted access to the system”

Macbeth crossed his arms “All that happened can be caused by someone who simply has access to the system? That would be a lot of people”

“Not ‘simply’… You’d need complete access to everything, with administrator rights, to shut off the cameras and coms or close doors like that”, Burt looked down the table “And before _someone_ else points it out, I have both of those things. There’s no proof that I’m not the one messing with everything but I’m cleared for Talinns’ murder”

“You’re not the only one, as third in command I have those rights as well”, Carol added.

“Is it possible to see if someone hacked into our systems?” Sven quickly asked before anybody could start throwing blame at Carol or Burt.

Burt scratched the back of his neck and looked the laptops’ screen “Theoretically. It would take a while though to find traces of that. If someone managed to do it then they’re no amateur. Plus, someone still has to look at all the footage that we have to clear as many of us as possible, that’s going to take some time too…”

“Can we even trust you with that?”

“Burt did not kill Talinn!”

“Who’s saying that the saboteur and killer are the same person?”

“Do we have two traitors?”

“Then, are they working together? If so even the people on the cameras wouldn’t be cleared”

Everyone started talking over each other, blaming not only Burt and Carol but also the mechanics and other elites and higher ups. If this was the kind of chaos that these news would cause in the whole clan… They probably shouldn’t tell anyone else yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Link to the ask blog  
> https://traitor-on-board.tumblr.com/


End file.
